Kiro Action

03/02/2020

After our news report with George P. Bush
aired on KXAN News on Friday, we received emails from homeless to cities wanting our solution. The below is someone with a disability, kicked out of their home & no affordable housing in Central Texas. As a society, we CAN and MUST do better. These types of individuals are the "working poor". The ones that go to work everyday, but only one incident away from losing everything, and in this case, it was because of medical care. This individual, because he had work recently, probably doesn't qualify for many assistance programs. He is considered "too rich" for the system for help because he used to live in a home, even though he lost it and doesn't meet enough variables to get help. We need to catch these people in the system, get them the right assistance, prevent them for going homeless and help make them to be productive citizens again. After initial conversations, the most impressive part is this person is he doesn't want a handout, but wants a job, even though he is practically homeless. He wants to work, even with a disability and being in a hospital. As a society, we CAN and MUST do better. Can anyone in Central Texas help this person with a job or affordable place to live and we will match you together? K*T Austin Austin American-Statesman

03/01/2020

Thank you for coming out Maggie Glynn with Commissioner George P Bush to talk about our solution. There is one oversight in this report and it’s about City of Austin’s definition of “effective zero” with counting which veterans are considered homeless. It’s true that the POINT-IN-TIME count for 2019 had 37 homeless veterans, but that’s NOT a true number or state of the situation. COA counts NO homeless veterans if they’re able to enter a program for case management. That doesn’t mean they get housing and they’re just on a list for assistance. This is the true state of numbers as of 2/28/2020: 123 homeless veterans are on high priority list to get housing based on medical needs and physical disability, an additional 103 homeless veterans are on the normal list to get housing, and an average of 38 unsheltered veterans become homeless every month in Travis County. We haven’t even talked about neighboring counties, such as Williamson. Tonight, that means at least 226 homeless veterans are sleeping on the streets of Austin. They are sleeping in vehicles in Wal-Mart parking lots, tents under bridges and on the streets. The case management organizations are doing their best, but are at the mercy of local availability of apartments, paying the normal market rate, and it takes upward of 90-days to get a homeless veteran that is on a list a home they can move into. Every day people are moving to Austin and there are no apartments available for these organizations to rent, so these unsheltered veterans are homeless tonight in this cold weather. As a society, we can’t obscure the true number affected and must always present the situation with absolute accuracy, even if it doesn’t look good for our city. If we pretend everything is ok and put our heads in the sand, we will never be able to address this issue effectively. If you don’t push for radical breakthroughs, you won’t get radical outcomes. As a society, we must do better. Visit our site at www.KIROACTION.com to learn more and contact your local representative.

02/28/2020

CBS AUSTIN NEWS came out and visited KIRO ACTION to showcase how we are the only scalable, cost-efficient and easily deploy-able solution to address general homelessness in Austin and beyond. It’s an easy formula, where local government dedicate under-utilized/un-utilized city-owned land, in empty parking lots to fields, connect to city services and serve as a real home for people in-need today. Paired with the proper wraparound services provided by local case management, we hope that is the right formula for getting general and homeless vets off the street, in a real home and back to leading a productive life. It helps that our solutions are put together in hours with our patent-pending designs without any heavy equipment or specialized machinery, too. Visit our site for more information on why we named our organization "KIRO ACTION" at www.KIROACTION.com

Austin City leaders continue to look at options to house the homeless, which has one local man stepping up to help. Sam Haytham, owner of KIRO Action Homes founded right here in Austin, is offering a solution. Haytham has created what he calls pop-up homes. "These homes can be deployed anywhere from...

02/28/2020

Thank you for coming out George P Bush. We intend to deploy in Austin to address general and Veteran homelessness. We can showcase how city and state governments can work effectively in addressing challenging problems with a dignified & scalable solution for others to adopt. Our solution can be deployed in under-utilized/un-utilized city-owned land, in empty parking lots to fields, connected to city services and serve as a real home for people in-need today. Paired with the proper wraparound services that are provided by local groups, we hope that is the right formula for getting general and homeless vets off the street, in a real home and back to leading a productive life. It helps that our solutions are put together in hours with our patent-pending designs without any heavy equipment or specialized machinery. You will see our option around Austin popping-up as we address chronic homelessness and as we expand to other cities in Texas, creating a blueprint for local governments to address this issue in a cost-efficient, scalable and dignified manner. Visit our site for more information on why we named our organization "KIRO ACTION" at www.KIROACTION.com

01/24/2020

Just 46-days from an idea over coffee to a prototype home to address veteran and general homelessness. We saw how polarizing homelessness is in our Austin community, and wherever we looked for a solution, faced more problems than answers. Therefore, we made our own solution, and within 46-days, KIRO ACTION was born.

KIRO ACTION is a home, disaster relief structure, pop-up hotel, workers accommodation, and veteran housing all-in-one. KIRO ACTION is different than previous efforts that have failed to make a dent in addressing homelessness. A KIRO ACTION home can be placed anywhere in a few hours by four people without any heavy equipment. Our solutions are real homes with a beautiful, modern design, built above code, over-engineered, all with working bathrooms and electrical. The homes can be deployed for 1-10 years, serve as a transitional home, cost-effective, scalable and is part of a blueprint to make homes up to 2000 sq ft.

Housing for the unsheltered is not easy, whether for veterans, families that lost a home to natural disasters or refugees as a result of war. We are offering a real, dignified solution. Spread the word about KIRO ACTION, help us connect with your local government, visit our site to learn more and join us on this journey.